Israel strikes home of Hamas lawmaker in Gaza

GAZA, Oct 11 (Reuters) An Israeli missile hit the Gaza Strip home of a well known lawmaker from the governing Islamist group Hamas today in what the army said was an attack on a weapons factory.

There were no reports of casualties in the strike on the building of Mariam Farhat, better known as Umm Nidal, who has often voiced pride at the death of three of her six sons during a Palestinian uprising.

Residents were warned in advance of the attack. Israel frequently carries out such strikes on buildings it says are used by militants after telling occupants to get out.

''There was an air strike on a weapons storage and manufacturing facility,'' an army spokeswoman said.

The building was badly damaged.

Farhat was one of the best known of the Hamas parliamentarians elected in January when the Islamist group dedicated to destroying Israel defeated moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah.

Farhat first won attention for appearing with her 17-year-old son Mohammed in a video recorded before he carried out a shooting attack on a Jewish settlement in 2000 in which he killed five people before being shot dead. Israel abandoned its Gaza Strip settlements in September 2005, but launched an offensive in the territory in June to try to recover a soldier captured by militants and to end cross-border rocket fire.

REUTERS DH RAI0714